Social Psychology of Education 6: 349–365, 2003. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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The relationship between childhood family background and educational performance, with special reference to single-parent families: a longitudinal study KAISA RIALA1,∗ , IRENE ISOHANNI2, JARI JOKELAINEN1,4, PETER B. JONES3 and MATTI ISOHANNI1,4 1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Box 5000, FIN-90014, Finland 2 Oulu Polytechnic, Oulu, Finland 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK 4 Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland
Abstract. Aims: Education is an important indicator of health and well-being. We studied the relationship between childhood family background and later educational achievements. Methods: A total of 10,581 subjects from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort were studied prospectively covering the period from pregnancy to 31 years of age. The association between family background (two-parent family and three types of single-parent families, wantedness of pregnancy, mother’s education, family size, social class and its change between 1966 and 1980) and educational achievements (school performance and highest attained education by age 31) was examined using two-way tables and logistic regression analysis. Results: Low maternal education and large family size were the most powerful predictors for low education in adulthood. Single-parent family background seemed to be less important compared with other family background variables in predicting low school performance or low educational level in adulthood. Conclusions: Single-parent family background and other adverse family features may increase the risk of educational underachievement. However, in a welfare state with well-educated population the effect of single-parent family background seems to be relatively small. Health care professionals, teachers and parents should pay attention to the specific educational needs and counselling of young adults from disadvantaged families.
1. Introduction Educational attainment is a major indicator and mediator of health, well-being and social capital (Isohanni et al., 2001a). Formal educational achievement is proposed to serve as a surrogate measure for behavioural, psychological, and cognitive variables, which are primary mediators affecting the incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of many common, chronic, somatic diseases (Pincus & Callahan, 1994). The association between psychopathology and low educational performance has been confirmed in numerous studies (Dohrenwend, Levav, & Shrout, 1992; ∗ Author for correspondence: Tel.: +358-8-315-7011; Fax: +358-8-315-7485; e-mail:
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Isohanni et al., 2001a). Poor education is also a critical determinant of many lost opportunities in our modern information-based society, for example, it may result in poor occupational achievements (Hills, 1982; Tuijnman, 1989) as well as unemployment and financial insecurity (Uusitalo, 1999). Childhood family environment influences a child’s educational performance in many ways. Risk factors for educational underachievement include unwanted pregnancy (Myhrman, Olsen, Rantakallio, & Läärä, 1995), low maternal education (Olsén, 1997), high number of siblings (Blake, 1986), low social class (Kuusinen, 1986) or poverty of the family (Koivusilta, 2000), and residential mobility (Astone & McLanahan, 1994). In the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort various individual background factors have been linked to educational underachievement, for example, delinquency (Järvelin et al., 1994), permanent smoking (Isohanni et al., 2001b) and psychiatric morbidity (Isohanni et al., 2001a). Single-parenthood is an increasing phenomenon (Eurostat. Statistics in focus, 1998), that has been linked to educational problems in previous studies. While family type, that is, the number of parents in the household, in itself may have little impact on child development (Lassbo, 1988), there are studies indicating that the school performance of children from single-parent families is lower compared with those from two-parent families (Guidubaldi & Perry, 1984; Mulholland, Watt, Philpott, & Sarlin, 1991; Aro & Palosaari, 1992). Adolescents who had experienced family dissolution or family reconstitution showed lower academic performance in a large Swedish population based study (Jonsson & Gähler, 1997). The risk of dropping out of school and consequent displacement is greater in adolescents from single-parent families (Astone & McLanahan, 1994). Even though most of the offspring of single-parent families do psychologically well in adulthood (Gähler, 1998), the negative effect of single parenthood may be persistent even in later educational attainments. Wadsworth, Maclean, Kuh, and Rodgers (1990) investigated educational attainment by age 26 in a birth cohort born in 1946 in Britain, finding a risk for lowered educational attainment if the parents had divorced or separated. Krein and Beller (1988) investigated the educational attainment of young adults from single-parent families; the longer the time spent in a single-parent family, the greater was the reduction in educational attainment. Keith and Finlay (1988) studied adult educational attainment, measured as mother– child differences. The relative gain over a mother’s educational attainment was lower for those who had experienced a parental divorce. O’Connor, Thorpe, Dunn, and Golding (1999) investigated the highest achieved level of education among pregnant women in the beginning of 1990’s. Failing to attain a university degree was especially common among those who had experienced parental divorce. Our aim was to study whether the association between single-parent family and low educational performance holds true also in Finland, a modern, Nordic welfare society, where the social security for single-parent families has been good and the income transfer system has reduced economic disadvantage in single-parent families very effectively (Forssén, 1998). In our study, we used data from the Northern
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Finland 1966 Birth Cohort. This longitudinal, prospective and register-based study design allows us to control for age effect, and to take into account multiple adverse family exposures. 2. Method 2.1. SUBJECTS This study is part of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort study. The series comprised an unselected, general population birth cohort of 12,058 live births, and covered 96% of all children born in Northern Finland in 1966 (Rantakallio, 1988). The majority of the cohort members are Finns, less than 80 of the subjects being Lapps or Gypsies (Moilanen & Rantakallio, 1988). Data on the cohort member’s families and personal characteristics were gathered at various ages, commencing during pregnancy, at birth in 1966 and at age of 1 year, and then at follow-ups during the years 1980 and 1981. The data bank is complemented continuously by several registers such as death register and hospital discharge register. A total of 11,017 individuals (5636 males, 5381 females) were living in Finland at the age of 16 years. From the original cohort 436 individuals were excluded because of emigration (n = 214), death (n = 138), or refusal to use their data (n = 84). 2.2. CHILDHOOD FAMILY BACKGROUND We used the information of the cohort member’s family background assessed during mother’s pregnancy and in 1980 at the age of 14. At that time, 19% (n = 2087; 1047 males, 1040 females) of the cohort members lived in single-parent families. As described earlier in detail (Moilanen & Rantakallio, 1988; Sauvola et al., 2000), single-parent families were divided into four groups: (1) All the time: the mother was unmarried at the entry to the study during pregnancy in 1966 and remained so up to the time the child was 14 years (n = 163); (2) At birth: the child was born to an unmarried mother who was married by the time the child was 14 years (n = 228); (3) Parental death: the mother (n = 108), father (n = 580) or both (n = 19) had died before the child was 14 years (n = 707); (4) Divorce: parents were divorced or were not living together by the time the child was 14 years (n = 989). The wantedness of the pregnancy was ascertained during prenatal clinic visits by responses to the question asking whether the pregnancy had occurred at a propitious time, whether it would have been preferred later, or whether it was not wanted at all (Myhrman, Olsén, Rantakallio, & Läärä, 1995). In the analysis the wantedness was divided in two categories: unwanted (n = 1214) versus wanted (n = 9123) combining the original groups of wanted and mistimed pregnancies. The unwanted pregnancies were more common in single-parent families: while 10% of pregnancies in two-parent families were unwanted, the corresponding percentages were 59% in the ‘all the time’-group, 42% in the ‘at birth’-group, 20% in the ‘parental death’-group and 12% in the ‘divorced’-group.
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The information about mother’s education in 1966 was divided into three categories (≤8 years/9–11 years/≥12 years of education). Family size was classified as ‘small/small’ if both the mother’s parity in 1966 and the number of siblings in 1980 were two or fewer. Family size was characterised as ‘small/large’ if parity in 1966 was two or fewer but number of siblings in 1980 was more than two, and ‘large/large’ if both measures were more than two (Myhrman, Olsén, Rantakallio, & Läärä, 1995). Social class in 1980 (original classes I–IV and V = farmers) was determined by the father’s occupation and its prestige. In cases where father’s information was missing, the mother’s occupation was used (Rantakallio, 1988; Isohanni et al., 2001a). Classes 1–2 included those with the highest profession, classes 3 and 4 were skilled and unskilled workers, respectively, and class 5 comprised farmers. When the change in social class between the years 1966 and 1980 was calculated, the farmers were located between classes III and IV. The social class change was divided into three categories (risen/declined/equal). 2.3. EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS Educational achievements were analysed from two perspectives (previously described in detail by Isohanni, 2001): school performance at the age of 16 and attained level of education by the age of 31. The mean score of all school subjects completed by the end of compulsory school was used as an indicator of school performance in three categories: fairly good or over 8.1, moderate or 7.1–8.0 and low or 7.0 or below. In Finland the range of grades given is 4 (rejected) to 10 (excellent). Data on the highest attained level of education were gathered from the national Educational Registry of Statistics Finland (Classification in Education, 1998). The classification is essentially consistent with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). The level of education is measured by the duration of education, education progressing in annual steps from lower to higher levels. The longer the duration of education, the higher is the attained level of education. The following eight educational level categories were: 1. primary education (less than 9 years); 2. lower secondary education, in Finland compulsory school (9 years); 3. lower level of upper secondary education (10–11 years); 4. upper level of upper secondary education; (12 years); 5. lowest level of tertiary education (13–14 years); 6. lower-degree level of tertiary education (15 years); 7. higher-degree level of tertiary education (16 years); 8. doctorate or equivalent level of tertiary education. In this study eight educational levels were combined into three categories: 1. basic education, or ≤9 years of total education (original categories 1–2); 2. upper secondary education, or 10–12 years of total education (original categories 3–4); 3. tertiary education, or ≥13 years of education (original categories 5–8). 2.4. CONFOUNDING FACTORS Psychiatric problems may be disadvantageous to individuals’ educational careers (Isohanni et al., 2001a). The data about hospital-treated psychiatric morbidity
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(yes/no) was gathered from The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register (FHDR). All cohort members appearing on the FHDR between the ages 16–31 with a psychiatric diagnosis were identified and diagnoses were validated (Isohanni et al., 1997). Later educational achievements depend on school performance. Therefore we added into the models both hospital treated psychiatric morbidity and school performance as potential confounding factors. 2.5. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS First, the mean scores and standard deviations of all school subjects were calculated for each family background factor (Table I). The statistical significance of differences between these means was adjusted for other family background factors using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Second, cross-tabulations were used in assessing the relation between family background and educational level (Table II). Third, a Table I. The distribution of school performance by family characteristics, gender and hospital treated psychiatric morbidity as assessed by mean scores of all school subjects Exposure
Meana
SD
ANOVA F
Family type 1980 at the age of 14 Single all time Single at birth Parental death Divorced Two-parent family
7.26 7.21 7.39 7.34 7.56
0.92 0.91 0.95 0.96 0.95
Wantedness of pregnancy Unwanted pregnancy Wanted pregnancy
7.24 7.56
0.91 0.95
Mother’s education 1966 ≤8 years 9–11 years ≥12 years
7.36 7.66 8.04
0.91 0.94 0.90
Family size at 1966 and 1980 Large/large Small/large Small/small
7.40 7.60 7.68
0.94 0.93 0.93
Social class 1980 III–V or low I–II or high
7.41 7.84
0.92 0.93
df
p
17.13
4.98
